virginia satir

Question 1

nurturing and emotional manner

Answer 1

-Satir made use of her keen intuition and touch in therapy. She had a genuine respect and value for the uniqueness of every individual.
-Virginia frequently started her workshops and community meetings with a meditation exercise to center each person

Question 2

explain internal/external

Answer 2

-Satir believed that elevating internal and external consciousness is crucial for developing healthy individuals and families. Being in touch with our internal selves aids “I-Thou” connections with one another

Question 3

explain becoming more fully human

Answer 3

She encouraged people “to become more fully human” by acknowledging and taking ownership for all of their parts. This meant that each part of an individual was a foundation for other systems including families, communities, countries and the universe.
-She did not use the term techniques in therapy

Question 4

explain development

Answer 4

-When the baby joins the family system, it disturbs a balance and each member of the system seeks a new position of balance among the turmoil of the upset system.
-How the family reacts and adjusts to the change of each member may either appear harmonious, or as a distressed struggle centered on pain and self-survival.

Question 5

why did Satir believe therapy helped

Answer 5

-Satir believed that family therapy deals with helping “dysfunctional families to become functional by changing patterns of behavior into patterns of choice

Question 6

dysfunctional families according to Satir

Answer 6

-A dysfunctional family has some or all of these characteristics: being guarded with one another, isolated, argumentative, feeling powerless or controlled, inflexibility and poor communication.

Question 7

functional families according to Satir

Answer 7

Satir believed that highly functioning families have the following traits: individuals feel cared for by other members, they are empathic, trusting, respect other members point of view, support one another and communicate openly.

Question 8

essence of Satir’s model

Answer 8

She believed that a key element in family therapy was self-esteem and claims that the internal dynamics of low self-esteem influences the whole family system. Satir’s model has been referred to as the communication system, however, her focus was on the emotions behind the communication and the feelings they have in response to the interaction.

Question 9

what is Satir’s model based on

Answer 9

on general systems theory
-The main goal in Satir’s therapy is to promote greater self-esteem in the members by revealing negative interactions and altering these interactions.

Question 10

low self esteem according to satir and the 4 coping stances

Answer 10

-The exchanges among family members with low self-esteem within dysfunctional families are based on survival.
-These survival interactions represent four coping stances: placating, blaming, super-reasonable, and irrelevant.

Question 11

define placating

Answer 11

With placating, members ignore their own feelings of worth and turn over their power to another member by going along with almost everything demanded of them

Question 12

define blamers

Answer 12

Blamers discount other members by harassing and accusing them. They are usually described as angry, aggressive and nagging.

Question 13

explain super-reasonable

Answer 13

The super-reasonable stance has the attribute of being callously objective. They reject their own and other people’s feelings by choosing the objective communication style in order to avoid accountability for their actions.

Question 14

explain irrelevant

Answer 14

The last coping stance is being irrelevant. These people constantly try to divert people’s attention away from the issue at hand. The irrelevant person continually changes his or her ideas and will not remain focused on one subject.

Question 15

four meta goals

Answer 15

1) The first goal is to increase self-esteem in clients.

2) The second goal is help clients make their own choices. She encouraged them to make choices by viewing a situation from three or more possibilities.

3) Satir believed that people should be more responsible for their feelings and behaviors (third meta goal).

4) The last goal was to help client’s become congruent. Congruence includes calmness, a sense of peace tranquility and wholeness

Question 16

Satir’s techniques, where they come from

Answer 16

-Her work incorporated Eastern meditations and spirituality in therapy by using deep breathing exercises and visualization.
-Satir’s work was also influenced by her interactions with New Consciousness thinkers and practitioners. She had a natural ability to interpret deep theoretical concepts and incorporate them in a meaningful way into her theory.

Question 17

sculpture

Answer 17

-Sculpture is an experiential technique that allows each member to see the inner dynamics of the relational patterns within the family system.
-“sculpt their relationships to each other; using gestures and bodily pictures together with components of distance and closeness, which show the communication and relationship patterns” (Satir & Baldwin, 1983,

Advantages: The advantage of using sculpture is that it reveals a more accurate representation of family communications than a verbal explanation. Another advantage is that it brings past experiences into the here and now.

Question 18

metaphor

Answer 18

-it is powerful when someone can attach something visually to something, taps into a different part of the brain
-A metaphor is used when an association is transferred from one domain to another in order to show similarities and distinctions. A metaphor can increase new awarenesses by linking two events, ideas, or connotations and altering experiences from one form to another.

Question 19

drama

Answer 19

-Drama is used when family members act out a scene from their life experience. Pantomime, special relationships and sculpture permit internal images to be expressed which goes well beyond the verbal description of a situation.

Question 20

reframing

Answer 20

Satir reframed problematic behaviors and responses in order to show the positive intentions behind them. The reframe is supposed to change how a family member thinks about the behavior so that it can be addressed more productively.

Question 21

humor

Answer 21

Satir frequently used humor in the beginning of the first session in order to help family members feel more relaxed. Humor was used during sculpting and developing a ballet of family interactions. She would use humor even during the most heated interactions in order to deescalate a situation.

Question 22

touch

Answer 22

Satir frequently used touch in therapy because she believed in the powerful influence of physical contact. She would hold hands with family members if they were accepting of it, but at the same time was respectful of people’s boundaries and would not cross them.